Detroit Group Not Giving Up On Marijuana Measure

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There’s still a chance Detroiters will get an opportuniy to vote on legalizing small amounts of marijuana.

A group called the Coalition for a Safer Detroit gathered more than enough petition signatures to put their proposal on the November ballot. If the ballot measure had been approved by voters, the city code would have been changed to allow possession of up to an ounce of marijuana on private property by people who are at least 21 years of age.

But the Detroit Election Commission rejected the proposal, claiming it would preempt state law.

Coalition spokesman Tim Beck calls that a bogus reason.

“You know, there’s an expression that you may have heard called ‘junk science.’ Well this is junk law, okay. And, they said that they’re not going to put us on the ballot because the issue is preempted by state law, and that is absolutely not true,” Beck said.

Beck tells WWJ his group believes that police have better things to do than chase small time marijuana smokers.

“The reason we’re doing this is we’ve got so many serious other crimes that are occurring throughout the city of Detroit — breaking and entering, auto theft, vandalism, domestic violence,” Beck said.

Beck says they will be filing soon with the Court of Appeals to put the issue to a vote in Detroit.